February 20 2008 Quilting Newsletter

Hi everyone. It’s the middle of the week which means Quilters Quarters is on its way to your computer.

We’ll I’m full steam ahead with my current patchwork project. I don’t design my patchwork quilts prior getting into the hands on creation. I prefer to create as I go and generally speaking my quilts turn out OK. Some disasters do occur along the journey and they often find their way to heaven, but otherwise I’m fairly happy with the outcome.

Some quilters, who completely design their quilt prior to taking up the needle, would find my design technique completely abhorrent and frustrating, but I find that when I design as I go, I am open to making changes and creating ideas to suit. It sort of gives me permission to fiddle and play.

This quilt I’m making at present is in the medallion genre. It’s a combination of piecing and Needleturn appliqué. I just love challenging myself to create accurate machine piecing. I take lots of pleasure in being able to fiddle with tiny pieces and this quilt contains eight 12" feathered star blocks, with 36 of the tiniest pieces in each block being 1" half-square triangles. This is not foundation pieced.

The Needleturn appliqué consists of blocks full of leaves, vines and stems; oh did I mention lots and lots of leaves? I’ve also challenged myself to only use fabrics from my stash for this quilt, and so far I’ve used 68 different greens, just as we find it in nature. (That’s not something I’d share with my DH [darling husband]. He simply wouldn’t understand that a quilter needs 68 different green fabrics!).

I have never been keen on using lots of tools and resources to appliqué; I simply use a needle and my THUMB. I find that I can get so much more completed without the gismos and gadgets. I have expanded on this in my article that has been posted this week on the Quilting website.

I’ve also included a Forum question regarding Needleturn appliqué where you can tell us about the type of technique you use to create your Needleturn appliqué. I think we’ll be surprised at just how many techniques are used to create Needleturn appliqué. Jump on this link to see the responses: http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=43

My gift to you this week was prompted by a request on the quilting forum from Cindy, who is looking for the formula for enlarging or reducing patterns using a photocopier. I knew I had the formula somewhere, and spent quite a deal of time turning my sewing room inside out, and finally found the formula. I’ve included it here, for you to use should you need it.

Formula for Enlarging & Reducing
To enlarge: Say you want a 12" block and the current size block you have is 6". You would divide 12 by 6. That would equal: 2. Then you multiply 2 by 100 and you get 200. So your answer would look like this:
12 /6 =2 x100 = 200%
To reduce: If you have a 12" block and your wanting a 3" one you would divide 3 by 12 and you would get .25. Now multiply .25 x 100 and here's your calculated answer: 3/12=.25x100 = 25%